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Transforming Behavioral Health in Health Systems with Iris Telehealth · Becker's Healthcare Behavioral Health

• 0:00
  Hello, everyone. I am Mariah Muhammad with Becker
• 0:02
  Health care. Thank you so much for joining
• 0:04
  us on this podcast.
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  We are thrilled to be joined today by
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  Andy Flanagan, Ceo of Iris Telehealth. Andy, thank
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  you so much for being here today. How
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  are you?
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  Doing well, Mariah. Great to be together today.
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  Yes. Of course, fo Today, we will discuss
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  how health systems are transforming
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  their behavioral health service lines. So with that,
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  let's dive right into our conversation. So, Andy,
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  the first question I really wanted to ask
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  you. What are you hearing about health system
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  leaders as their biggest challenges to providing
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  effective quality behavior health care to their communities?
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  At
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  The biggest challenges is, how do I connect
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  the lessons learned from digital
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  transformation in other areas of the health system?
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  And apply that to behavioral health.
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  Got it. Yeah. Yeah. That completely makes sense.
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  Are there any critical components to transforming
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  behavioral health service lines in a way that's
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  financially sustainable and scalable?
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  Yes. There are several very clear pillars that
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  have to be addressed.
• 1:00
  First of all, integrate behavioral health at the
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  service line level
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  requires an enterprise wide approach.
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  Most health systems and hospitals are solving this
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  in a piece basis based on
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  sites of care, emergency department.
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  Inpatient, than outpatient.
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  We need to think about a holistic
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  approach to behavioral health. Otherwise, the money will
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  not flow the right way No money, no
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  mission. So that's it, the the key element
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  is a top down approach.
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  Yeah. That completely makes... Thank you for giving
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  us those those pillars.
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  Can you share some examples of how hospitals
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  have successfully adjusted, then their strategy to better
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  meet the behavioral of health needs of their
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  community?
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  Yes.
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  Many hospitals and health systems have focused on
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  the emergency department. There's significant boarding and that
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  happens due to the behavioral health concerns.
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  And they're just aren't enough beds in our
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  communities. That's not gonna change. Or an up
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  psychiatrists,
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  and the Eds are active on the nights
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  and weekends,
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  very difficult times to have people waiting on
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  hand.
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  So number 1, they've leveraged technology,
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  both virtual channels like iris provides and many,
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  many others,
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  as well as technologies.
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  More importantly, where we've moved beyond that area
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  is to a proactive approach,
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  integrating with primary care,
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  starting to bring resources into the community and
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  you see that in coordination of care models,
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  behavioral health integration models, plenty of companies working
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  there. And so
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  thinking about
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  the integration in the community and in primary
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  care as a way to solve the issue
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  in the emergency department is not intuitive.
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  Those are directly connected.
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  Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. That makes a lot of
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  sense. How do you see behavioral health fitting
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  into...
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  Value based care strategies for health systems.
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  There is no way that value based care
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  will be successful over the next 3 to
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  4 years without... Incorporating behavioral health.
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  We have done a fantastic job of understanding
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  chronic care, poly chronic patients, high utilize,
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  plenty of navigation companies working with payers, self
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  insured entity companies have grown.
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  And so the only way value based care
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  will be successful.
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  In this next tran. So every year, there's
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  a new baseline.
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  Right? Every year we get better at this
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  integrating behavioral health is this last frontier. And
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  so over the next 3 years you will
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  see, and I see this today. The number
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  of partners that I speak to people that
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  are calling us trying to help. Figure out
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  how we can help them.
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  Behavioral health has to be a part of
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  those patient journeys because they're a part of
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  the patient journey.
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  The average cost of a patient with a
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  behavioral
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  authentication is 2.2
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  times higher
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  than an individual without a behavioral health authentication.
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  So
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  Better or worse, we're gonna all lean in
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  a behavioral health if we wanna be successful
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  value based care.
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  Absolutely. I absolutely like I I think I
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  definitely do agree you that value based care
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  cannot not happen.
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  If we do not do the behavioral health.
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  Before I let you go, Andy the last
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  thing I really want to ask you, what
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  what role do you think
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  virtual care plays in the future of behavioral
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  health care.
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  It's an absolute requirement. You know, it's it's
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  it's kind of like saying that we're gonna
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  use computers
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  but not phones.
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  What why why would we ever think that
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  in today's world? We wouldn't. It's an extension.
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  Virtual would
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  physical only, not virtual. And I'm not just
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  talking about services that we provide, you know,
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  Iris telehealth health as a modality.
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  Virtual care is proven its role. The patients,
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  the family
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  patients, the care advocates, the cost of care,
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  all the practical reasons.
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  For someone not to view the integration of
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  virtual and physical as the endgame
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  is somebody that is stuck in their own
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  modality.
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  It's just not the way this world's is
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  gonna finish
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  this story.
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  So...
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  And and we're seeing great bright lights there
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  in terms of total cost of care,
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  and sustainable reimbursement,
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  it's not easy,
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  but it is here to say.
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  Yeah. Thank you so much for giving us
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  that insight. And, Andy, thank you so much
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  for joining me today for this amazing discussion.
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  It's absolutely been a pleasure speaking with you,
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  and I like to also thank our sponsor,
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  Iris Telehealth.
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  You can tune into more podcast podcasts and
• 5:21
  virtual events from Becker Health care by visiting
• 5:23
  Becker hospital review dot com. Thank you again,
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  Andy.
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  Thank you, Mariah. Have a wonderful day.